Summary:
ZIP code 40359 has one middle school, Maurice Bowling Middle School, serving grades 5–8 with 475 students in Owen County. Its 2025–2026 results show a clear challenge: the school’s reported averages were below Kentucky’s in every subject, by 13 to 19 points. Across all 13 reported subject-and-grade comparisons, the school averaged 27%, versus 44% statewide—a 17-point gap.
There is no local top or bottom school to identify because Maurice Bowling is the only school listed. Within its results, mathematics was closest to the state average, at 28% versus 41% (13 points below); reading was farthest behind on the grade averages, at 30% versus 49% (19 points below). Among individual reported scores, eighth-grade math was closest to the state result, 36% versus 39%, while seventh-grade reading had the largest gap, 26% versus 50%. SchoolDigger gives the school one star and ranks it 287th of 326 Kentucky schools, in the 12th percentile, for 2025–2026.
Results improved overall on matched grade-and-subject comparisons, though seventh-grade reading stands out as a decline: nine of 12 results rose, including a 10-point increase in eighth-grade reading, while seventh-grade reading fell 10 points to 26%. The school’s average on those matched results increased from 25% to 27%, and the average gap with the state narrowed by 3 points, from 20 to 17. SchoolDigger’s previous ranking was 299th of 320 in 2024–2025, in the 7th percentile with no stars. Other context: the student–teacher ratio was 14.8 in 2024–2025, and 56% of students were free/reduced lunch eligible that year. In 2025–2026, chronic absenteeism was 26%, compared with 27% in the district and 24% statewide; the dropout rate was 0.0%, versus 0.4% in the district and 1.0% statewide. Because this is the only listed school, there is no school-to-school comparison or range.
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